Fishing and waterways

I love Slovenia. I made a flying visit to Bled on my way from Ljubljana to Bovec for a week of kayaking around the Soca valley in the Julian Alps. Not sure how good lake bled would be for fishing, there did seem to be a lot of rowers about when I was there.

The rivers are azure blue with crystal clear water so you'd definitely see the fish but they would also be able to see you. At one point I ended up going for a swim out of my boat and went over a drop (NB if you ever end up swiming in whitewater then get on your back, feet first, keep your feet up out of the water and take a big breath and curl up in to a ball if you are going to go down a drop) and it was really disorientating how clear the water was because I thought I was just a few inches under the surface so I just waited to float back up but in fact I'd gone down a few metres and it was only when I reached up and realised that I couldn't feel the surface that I realised that I had a bit of an issue and would need to start putting some effort in. Didn't see any fish whilst I was down there.

 

Just had a week split between Ljubljana and Bled. Very impressed, the whole country I think has something for everyone, even old geezers like me.

 

51 euros for a day/night ticket or 119 for 3 days

 

As you know this trip wasn't on my coin, but I reckon it would be cheaper than most European destinations for me as flights are easy, given I'm within 90 mins drive of Stansted, Luton, Gatwick, Southend and Heathrow

 

Ljubljana is a great little city. Very pretty and with enough culture stuff to keep you happy for a couple of days. As a significant plus it's cheap, has great food (Italian / German influence) and the beer is spectacularly good (lots of real ale and craft stuff).


Predjama Castle - what better place to build a castle than in a massive cave?


Postojna Cave - no castles in this one, just a train, loads of stalagmites, stalagtites and salamanders.


Julian Alps


Blue rivers (none of that muddy brown British rubbish - just google image search Soca, it really is that colour)


...and Haris Vuckic

 

We went up to Kranjska Gora which looks good for winter sports, as you say brilliant value, beer as cheap as 4€ a litre

 

Maybe check out the river Rothay in Cumbria, in low* water it definitely has an Alpine crystal clear colourless characteristic that would seem to be a perfect fit.

* low from a whitewater kayaking perspective is anything under 1.2m on the EA gauge at Miller Bridge House.

 

That looks like a decent little surf wave, where is it?

 

No danger of washing off that wave, it looks like you could stay on it all day! Found it on p100 of the Scottish White Water guidebook which recommends putting in where the B885 Portree to Bracadale road crosses the river and getting off at Skeabost Bridge Hotel but judging by the lack of videos on YouTube I'm guessing that it's not regularly paddled.

 

The river Dee (or Afon Dyrfdwy if you're Welsh) looking as pretty as usual at Mile End Mill in Llangollen.

 

Went for a paddle down the Calder from Hebden Bridge to Sowerby Bridge yesterday. Plenty of wildlife about with dippers, herons, a few kingfishers and even a family of sika deer keeping us company but the thing that still amazes me more than anything else is just how much debris and damage remains from the Boxing Day 2015 flood.